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It was weeks after he received the Ring, weeks of blackouts and inexplicable injuries and his apartment rearranging itself, that he heard it. Hello, landlord , a voice whispered in his ear. He froze, eyes searching the empty room. He knew those words. They were printed on his forearm, handwritten in the scrawl of someone unaccustomed to the kanji.
He’d speculated with his sister that he’d end up renting an apartment to a foreigner, once, before they got old enough to realize what her lack of words meant. Before that promise was fulfilled and they stopped being able to talk at all.
But he had his words, and they’d just been spoken by no one at all. He’d never realized that your soulmate could be a voice inside your head.
There was laughter, somehow felt as well as heard, but the voice said nothing else. Then even that faded, and he was alone once again.
Though he didn’t hear from it again, it didn’t take long for the Voice to gain a capital letter in his mind. Somehow, this was his soulmate, and the least he could do was give it a name.
He started waking up in alleys and at game tables and with bodies in front of him. He fantasized that the Voice was simply feline in its affections, hunting down gifts just for him. Not that he was its soulmate. He only had the one set of words, and it had no other body on which to write. He still cleaned up after it. It was the only way he had to express his devotion.
He started moving, to protect it. Starting at a third new school in as many months was lonely, but his biggest regret was that he had no one with whom to test out his new ideas for games. They were coming to him more often, recently, and more vividly. He’d wake up with ideas for new villains, new monsters, and the taste of copper in his mouth.
He filled his apartment with game boards, and wasn’t surprised when he came back to himself to find most of them destroyed. Those that survived the Voice’s judgment were used to lure more people to play with him. He told himself he was shocked whenever he found his new ‘friends’ comatose by the game’s end. He continued inviting people to become sacrifices for the Voice.
He thought the Voice was pleased. He hoped he wasn’t deluding himself. It was destined for them to be together, proven by the words seared into his flesh. Destiny had taken his sister, and now it had repaid its debt and given him someone else to love. He knew he was lucky. No matter who else left you, you couldn’t be abandoned by a voice inside your head.
He wasn’t sure how it had been when he transferred once again and met Yugi – Yugi, who advertised his status as vessel for all the world to see. He didn’t know what words Yugi had imprinted on his skin, but he could tell that the two of them were the same.
He admired Yugi’s openness, but didn’t say anything. There was no need. He was sure they already understood each other perfectly.
It wasn’t long after that that the Voice finally spoke again. Hello, landlord , it said, and his left arm began to throb. I believe it’s time to pay my rent.
He smiled as his vision began to fade. Finally, he had proof that the Voice loved him, too.